Various - Disco Kandi 05.04

Hed Kandi: 2004

Right, don't need to get deep into this one. I've talked plenty about Hed Kandi, its various compilation series, the rise, the buy-out, the fall, the continued existence. Heck, I've already dabbled in their disco series twice now, so no need to get more detailed about something as self-explanatory as this.

Eh, before I talk the music, you want to know where Disco Kandi 05.04 falls on the grand timescale of Hed Kandi's lifespan? Oh, somewhere in the middle. I think this was one of the last before Ministry Of Sound came along, doing away with the numerical titles after. Disco Kandi became just another yearly DJ mix series, the first track of this new direction a remix of Fedde Le Grand's Put Your Hands Up For Detroit. As if you needed a more perfect example of Hed Kandi's brand losing the plot under the Ministry's 'guidance'.

Not that everything was flying high while still under Mark Doyle's supervision. Even here, one can sense a bit of struggle in filling out two CDs worth of up-front disco leaning house music. Change was unavoidable by the year 2004, most producers chasing that lucrative 'electro' craze, leaving things like 'funk' and 'soul' behind. There were hold-outs, of course, with many regular Kandi contributors featured across these two CDs. The days of finding hot up-and-comers were long gone though, few future hits makers found on Disco Kandi 05.04.

As always, disc one gives us the mid-tempo garage, exuberant Latin, and soulful side of house, with names like StoneBridge, Basement Jaxx, Funkstar De Luxe, and Joey Negro (as The Sunburst Band here) keeping things in familiar Hed Kandi territory. There's also that Axwell kid doing a remix on Mambana's Felicidad, but is more of a standard, loopy French house rub and anything 'Swedish'. The only track I recognize from elsewhere is Seamus Haji's go with Belezamusica's Running Away, though I can't help but think this is a remix of a cover? There's a fair bit of that going on between these two discs.

Oh yes, we get a couple of such tracks on CD2 (the late-night option), including Mr. Haji having his own go with Last Night A DJ Saved My Life. There's also Soul Central doing rather generic cover of Strings Of Life, a tune that I'll never understand the appeal of (those 'strings' always sound like ass). King Britt is here with a decent little acid boogie number in I Can't Wait (Milk & Sugar on the rub). Armand van Helden is still trying to ride that French house thing with My My My. And gosh, is that a touch of the space disco in opener Solaris from DJ Gregory? Sure sounds like it to me.

Overall, Disco Kandi 05.04 doesn't offer much that you wouldn't have heard before. It's just more of the same from the Hed Kandi brand, but as a slice of fluffy, funky house on a rainy day, it'll do the trick.

Various - Base Ibiza 2003

Base Ibiza Records: 2003

As the early Hed Kandi brand grew, the temptation to spin off sub-labels couldn't be helped. Aside from Stereo Sushi, however, these didn't take root, folks content sticking to the label and artwork they were most familiar with. The Acid Lounge tried getting in on that underground downtempo gig, with a grittier, pulpier comic stylee, but only lasted a few releases. Then there's this, Base Ibiza Records, a tie-in with the Ibizan bar of the same name. That's... remarkable, that Hed Kandi never really paired up with any established club for a proper residency, instead letting their brand tour about. It wasn't a long partnership though, lasting just half a decade. Base Ibiza 2003 is smack dab right in the middle of the run.

With my last exposure to the Hed Kandi discography a pair of utterly abysmal World Series mixes from much later in their lifespan, these CDs were such a refreshing reminder of the class once associated with the label. House music! Real, honest-to-God house music! With the disco loops and the soul sista's and the fiesta chants and the club monologues and... the trend-whoring remixes and... the euro anthems (?), and the.. cover songs? Wow, they really couldn't clear the rights to X-Press 2's Muzikizum? That track was everywhere, so it couldn't have been that expensive. Why settle for a knock-off version?

Speaking of, you remember what song got huge around this time? Talk Talk's It's My Life, is what, though thanks entirely to No Doubt's cover resurrecting interest in it. Then radio stations started playing the original version again, and folks realized the O.G. '80s style was better (retro revival sure helped). Thus is the only reason I can fathom hearing a Liquid People remix of It's My Life on here. Cool bassline added though. Speaking of basslines, Junior Jack sure did love him some of Daft Punk's Burnin', but hey, throw some Latin vibes over it, call it E Samba, and no one will ever tell the difference!

As should be abundantly clear, I'm not giving Base Ibiza 2003 that much of a serious critical overview. Nor should I, the music within about as deep as the beach shallows of the Ibizan shores. It is fun music though, at least the first disc wherein the disco vibes and garage shuffles and floppin' funk is felt. It's got a StoneBridge remix in there, mang', and you can't have a proper Hed Kandi outing without at least one tune with StoneBridge at the console.

CD2 aims for the 'later in the night' club outing, but is all over the place as a result, sounding like a mish-mash of left-over tunes that just wouldn't fit in the first CD. Some mild McProg (iiO's At The End), a little tech-house (4Tune 500's Dancing In The Dark), and a nod to the burgeoning 'eurotrash house' sound (Andrea Doria's Bucci Bag). Oh, and all those aforementioned cover/remixes are here too. Yeah, I think I'll stick with CD1 in this outing. It's funner!

Various - Balance 015: Will Saul

EQ Recordings: 2009

Won't deny, I had low thoughts about this one when I first saw it advertised a decade ago. I generally liked the Balance series to that point, but Joris Voorn's contribution had me wondering whether things were taking a turn for the over-indulgent, hipster-baiting path. Glancing at the tracklist didn't allay my suspicions either, what with inclusions from Ricardo Villalobos' Minimoonstar, Hercules & Love Affair, Seth 'he so crazy!' Troxler, and that new-fangled 'dubstep' the kids wouldn't shut up about, b'gar. Throw in a cover shot that has Mr. Saul looking like he's posing for Craft Beers Monthly (“This Issue, The 20 Best New IPAs From Mercer Island You MUST Try!”), and yeah, my totally sad first impression wasn't good.

But Will Saul's 3CD set for Balance is good. Real damn good. Ignore what Late 2009 Sykonee thinks. He was getting disillusioned about things anyway.

Besides, my ignorant thoughts were mostly due to ignorance of who Will Saul is. I assume he's a fairly big deal in the UK, though I hadn't heard of him before, and haven't heard much of him since. Has a couple labels behind his belt. Recently released his second album. Look, I've limited word count here, and I'd rather spend it discussing these CDs over Mr. Saul's biography.

And what a lovely assortment of CDs we have here. We're deep in Balance's 'No Genres Off Limits!' era, and with three discs to indulge himself, Will indulges himself indeed. Instead of making each CD strict genre exercises though, Mr. Saul works a general theme while dedicating significant chunks of his sets to specific styles. CD1 gets in on that deep house and space disco vibe, with a tasty acid and Chicago closer. CD2 is the more (then) conventional set of the three, sticking to trendy, minimalist tech-house before taking a slight detour into Detroit's back alleys. Then, in a total tonal shift, Will finishes the set out with future garage (still called 'dubstep' back then). Yeah, that's probably just as trendy, but I like this stuff, so it coo'.

Opening CD3 with reggae dub though? Oh... oh my! Who in the history of Balance has done that? Okay, Jimmy Van M, kinda', but that was just one song, whereas Will spends eight. Some of it is modern 'reggae dub', sure (re: dubstep that actually honours its Jamaican roots), but as found elsewhere across Balance 015, he mixes these (then) contemporary styles with vintage stuff quite nicely. Things move on from there into funk and soul (old and new, including Wolf + Lamb), plus garage and house, with mostly (then) new stuff trying to sound like way old stuff. The retro was in full swing by the late '00s, absolutely.

So yeah, I quite like Will Saul's CD3 here, and even enjoy CD1 despite not having quite as much to say about it. CD2 feels quite of its time though, but is fine for what it offers. Plus, very little of Minimoonstar was used. I LOL'd.

Various - Balance 013: SOS

EQ Recordings: 2008

Thirteen volumes deep, and the Balance series came full circle. Or looped around. Reached into its past. Had its first instance of a returning DJ, is what I'm getting at. This time though, he's with two other chaps as a super-group (before being in a super-group was cool). In a more subtle sense, Balance 013 brings in Omid '16B' Nourizadeh for the first time. You might recall I've come into contact with him via his Changing Shape alias, the track Keep It On opening Bill Hamel's contribution to the Nokturnel Mix Sessions series. And Bill Hamel did the third volume of the Balance series! Which means... which means... I could really go for a side of bacon in my next breakfast.

The inlay blurb (and Discogs entry) has quite the lengthy spiel of positive hyperbole regarding Omid, Desyn, and Demi's impact upon the clubbing scene. As I look back upon those heady years of the late '00s, however, I fail recalling anything of the collective called SOS. Maybe it was mostly in the UK and Europe they did their damage, the cross-Atlantic markets denied their tours. Still, as with Deysen's own career, SOS seemed to have disappeared from the Discoggian archives as the 2010s took hold. Not that there was much prior either, but when clubbing culture became all about the super-group DJ squads, I can't imagine SOS stood out from the pack as much anymore.

Still, compared to some of the Balance sets of the period (*cough-012-cough*), this has held up quite well. It's not a brilliant 3CD set by any stretch, and would likely be poo-poo'd out of Very Important critical discussion compared to the series' follow-ups. Very little feels dated though, tunes that knew exactly what they were aiming for, with DJs deploying them in an efficient manner.

Well, maybe not so much CD1. Clearly meant to be the 'chill-out' set, this one's too scattershot to accomplish its goal. Yeah, I like hearing Speedy J's De-Orbit and Bryan Ferry's Don't Stop The Dance, but in cramming the variety they do with competing visions, it comes off rather aimless and jumbled. Stick to the dancefloors, mates.

So they do, CDs two and three riding things out with acid house, Balearic prog, spacey disco, beefy breakbeats, and Aeroplane. Someone in SOS sure loves them some Aeroplane. About the only time things go super hands-in-the-air is with Michael Cassette's Shadow's Movement, but their retro sounds are charming enough for an anthem, so I'll allow it.

As much as I grooved to these sets though, I can't say they often got me excited either. It could just be the three-disc format making it difficult to take in all at once, but then other 3CDers in this series don't have that problem. For better or worse, I know what each set sounded like in other Balances, whereas they blended together here. Still not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but for certain, it is a thing.

Various - Balance 008: Desyn Masiello

EQ Recordings: 2005

Before getting into Desyn Masiello's contribution to the Balance series, I feel it necessary to confirm that, yes, I don't have James Holden's edition. For sure I've heard it, and I thought to myself, “Gosh, if it ever comes down in price, I may pick that up.” It never did, growing more pricey as the years went on. Not some of those other Balance mixes though!

Straight up, I don't know much about Mr. Masiello, and to be fair, neither does the modern internet. Chap apparently had quite the run of success within prog-house circles at the start of the '00s, often name-dropped among the Next Generation of DJs leading that scene into the future. Except he didn't, nearly any records of solo output drying up from Discoggian archives following this release, retreating into the DJ conglomerate SOS thereafter. No follow-up DJ mixes, no big singles, and no in-demand remixes. For all intents, Desyn peaked out with Balance 008, then decided the fame of having a 'Best of 2005' set out on the market was all the taste of the limelight he needed. Time to get back behind the decks, with two other guys running photo interference.

By the by, when I saw Discoggian posts claiming Balance 008 got a 'Best Of 2005' honour, I had a hard time figuring out from who. Like, DJ Mag, or Mixmag? Surely not Resident Advisor, but lo', when I checked, there it was! I couldn't believe they would have considered a set such as this among the best releases of that year, but then, RA was still in the habit of dishing out 3.5/5's to the likes of Ferry Corsten and Armin van Buuren. Ah, your older shame will never be wiped away, RA.

Right, the music. It definitely isn't 'prog' in any traditional sense, that's for sure. I've seen the word electro bandied about for Desyn's selection, but coming off Chris Fortier's proper electro exercise in Balance 007, that just won't do either. Still, there's definitely something of an '80s space disco vibe going on with CD1, with occasional Moroder basslines sprinkled about the retro synths. Even when Desyn tries steering things into traditional prog and anthem house territory for the finish, there's still that space disco feeling lingering in the air.

Chris Lake's piano anthem Changes ends CD1 on a pretty big high, almost impossible to follow upon in CD2. So Mr. Masiello doesn't even try, instead getting a little indulgent by opening with Orbital's Halcyon Anonanon. Okay, sure, not my favourite Orbital tune, but I'm sure has plenty of personal feels for Desyn. This set's a bit all over the place though, running through loopy disco house, funky synthy house, Hed Kandi anthem house (thanks, Joey Negro), and deeper tech-house. Some good tunes in there, but not as cohesive as CD1 was. Ah well, at least there was no sign of the dreaded 'mnml' bug in here. The Balance series wasn't gonna' hold that off for much longer though.

Various - Hed Kandi World Series: Miami

Hed Kandi: 2011

Someone must have told the Hed Kandi offices they done fucked up on the London volume of World Series, because is this ever an improvement. It's still not great, mind you, but Miami at least feels like a Hed Kandi release, unlike the generic, soulless Ministry Of Sound bandwagon jump London was. Even a glance at the tracklist shows the music steering back to the tried, tested and true vibes of days gone by. Wally Lopez! Olav Basoski! The Shapeshifters! Funkagenda! StoneBridge! Like, seriously, StoneBridge is one of the stalwarts of Hed Kandi, always getting repped in their compilations, and London had him not. That alone proves how full of fail those CDs were (no offence to Avicii, but c'mon).

All hyperbole aside, I should bring y'all up to speed on what the World Series was all about. Far as I can tell, it was Ministry Of Sound Hed Kandi's attempt at a Global Underground styled globe-trotting DJ mix series, though focusing on top-tier fashion locales as well as clubbing hot spots. Not an entirely daft idea for a series, and the Hed Kandi of old certainly branded itself as something of a trendy taste-maker within that particular scene.

Thus the inlays are filled with spiffy write-ups about hot clubs, cool restaurants, and must-visit boutique shops (why yes, Ministry Of Sound was the first club mentioned in the London inlay, why do you ask?). Again, not a bad idea for extra promotional branding, but it seems the series wasn't long for the world (arf), folding shortly after this volume. Interestingly, Miami is the only locale with a sequel. Just can't beat those Latin jams, eh? Or those WMC perks.

To be critically honest though, both discs are filled with big builds and anthems and all that rot I bitched about in the London mixes (different local DJs handle each disc, but their styles are so similar, it's a moot point who they are). The difference is how they deliver though, how many of the peaks actually thrust forward with enthusiasm, not drop into a plodding anti-anthem. Oh, this build lasts over a minute? Don't matter, 'cause that peak with the bellowing diva is gonna' have you flailing like a junglist! Okay, maybe not that enthusiastically, but more than whatever those dopes on ketamine are up to.

Granted, it's not all forward-momentum goodness all the time. There are stretches where the builds are too gratuitous or don't deliver what they promise or don't serve any purpose other than having a build for build's sake because you gotta' have a build in every single track in a Ministry Of Sound mandated release. In a way though, it almost works, the lesser builds highlighting how good the great builds are. Plus, the fact it all sounds like Hed Kandi music (except that one McProg track, wha'da'fuq?), shameless and shallow but disco-y and fun, that's good too. Look, after the abysmal showing in the previous World Series collection, I'll take it.

Various - A Taste Of Kandi Summer 2007

Hed Kandi: 2007

It's generally agreed upon Hed Kandi's decline occurred when Ministry Of Sound bought the brand in 2006. That doesn't mean it happened all at once, I'm sure a few decent selections coming out before that decade came to a close. Ah, this looks promising enough, a tidy, single-disc sampler mix highlighting peppy, summery house jams, and but a scant couple years after the Ministry buy-in. Surely this will prove it wasn't all rubbish immediately after.

And you know you're in good hands when a set opens up with Miguel Migs. He's one of those producers where you know what you're gonna' get, so if you've already gotten his stuff, there's no rush to get more so long as you're sated on what you got. That don't mean he's a welcome addition to any collection of house music though. Migs sets the tone for a large chunk of the opening: soulful disco house that brings to mind glitzy clubs serving glitzy people drinking glitzy drinks. Nothing revolutionary, but it doesn't need to be, music knowing exactly what its purpose is. No one's getting a Hed Kandi mix for intuitive underground sounds; sometimes you just need a quick fix of vanilla sundae with rainbow sprinkles.

A run of big disco anthems ups the tempo some, featuring tunes from the likes of Frank Ti-Aya, Justin Michael, Asbo, with guest vocalists ranging from Katherine Ellis, Jocelyn Brown, and Yardi Don, plus remixes from Soul Avengerz, Born To Funk, Deep Groovers, and House Brothers. Uh, sorry, but I'm drawing blanks on these names. Punters and DJs well entrenched in the Hed Kandi brand are probably familiar with them, but many of these appear like factory productions, churning out fodder for the DJ pools to be rinsed out for a season, then tossed off in favour for another round a few months later. So it always goes in clubland, I guess. The tunes are all fine for the time they're playing, but they don't really stand out from the disco house glut either.

Then Eddie Thoneick throws down a remix towards the final stretch, and you can always tell it's an Eddie Thoneick remix because few did big, punchy electro-house anthems like that chap did in the mid-'00s. Following that is a... cover? Of Big Fun? The artist credit goes to D.O.N.S., with a remix done by Beaver & Jones, but aside from giving the classic Detroit anthem some (then) current production punch, isn't much different from the original. Oh well, at least Steve Mac's rub on Bryon Stingily's Get Up (Everybody) is a fun disco anthem to end things on.

But then the mix has to keep going and let The Creeps from Freaks literally fart all over everything. Ugh, that was already a lame-ass flatulent tune jock-riding the Satisfaction craze when it was new, and it sounds utterly shite among so much upbeat disco action. Forget the last track's tribal-drum action, The Creeps ruined everything with its odoriferous stank rubbing on the CD.

Various - Hed Kandi The Mix: Summer 2004

Hed Kandi: 2004

As I continue my curiosity-sating plunge into Hed Kandi's prime years (cheap used CDs help), one issue I've had with them is their unmixed nature. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having full tracks for my own music collection, but when you're dealing with double-disc compilations of very similar music throughout, it grows monotonous hearing all those obligatory DJ-friendly intros and outros over and over and over. And honestly, this is only an issue on collections like Disco Heaven or Beach House, where the selections are about as homogeneous as this genre can get. It all works well enough in mix sets, but the stop-start nature of unmixed tracks calls for variety, capitalizing on the freedom of breathing space between tunes. The more I listened to Hed Kandi compilations, the more I wondered why they didn't offer them in the form of DJ mixes.

Well lo', they did! ...after a time. There were occasional single-disc 'samplers' released, but by 2003, the demand was high enough that Hed Kandi officially dove into the overstuffed multi-CD DJ mix market. Only they kept things in-house, curator Mark Doyle doing the business, no major spotlight on some superstar mercenary jock stealing the shine from the real heroes of a DJ mix: the artists that make the tunes!

The Mix: Summer 2004 was one of the label's earliest forays into the DJ mix medium, and let me tell you, all those nitpicks about Hed Kandi I highlighted above, instantly solved here! Sure, there's no technical wizardry out of these sets, but who'd ever buy something from this label expecting that? You're first and foremost buying from Hed Kandi because the catchy cover art lured you in. Then, maybe distant second, the music selection intrigued you further. So long as there aren't any horrid transitions or tonal clashes, you're gonna' have a good time.

The two main mixes of this 3CD set remains consistent with Hed Kandi's breaded butter, CD1 featuring the garage and disco house, and CD2 getting in on those clubby anthems and *shudder* trendy 'electro' schlock. Yeah, Ferry Corsten's Rock Your Body Rock is here, and sounding way out of place even in track list consisting of Junior Jack's Stupidisco, Armand Van Helden's “I cans Daft Punk too!” Hear My Name, and Cicada's “Stadium Remix” of Deepest Blue's Is It A Sin. Can you tell I prefer CD1?

Of course, CD3 gives me the most endorphin tingles, an almost obligatory 'classics' collection of tunes. Well, 'back in the day' compared to the year 2004 – the upfront tunes of this release are now older than some of the classics were then! And while some may roll their eyes at seeing tracks like Ce Ce Peniston's Finally, Robin S.' Show Me Love, and Aftershock's Slave To The Vibe trotted out again, I bet you haven't heard them arranged in this order! Oh, you have. Well, I just have a soft spot for oldies from Morales, Humphries, and Knuckles, so there.

Various - Disco Kandi 05.02

Hed Kandi: 2002

Time munches on - *chomp, chomp* - and CDs that were once silly-costly on Vancouver shelves continue to drop in price across the globe, including the unstoppable Hed Kandi machine. This doesn't mean I'm interested in gathering up all the Hed Kandi compilations, but for an occasional fiver, what harm is there in a steady indulgence of early-'00s club house and disco dance? None I say, and let's be honest: no matter how corny or cheesy you think the music might be on these, it's neigh impossible resisting a tempting glance from the cover art alone. So slick, so supple, so seductive, so... oh my!

Hed Kandi may have started more on a deep house tip, but the label knew where the the real money was: the chill-out market! After they covered that angle, they branched out to the next most lucrative scene, establishing the Disco Kandi series, and hoo-boy howdy, were they quick to flood the market with sequels. 2001 alone saw three entries, capping off with Disco Kandi 5. For some reason though, they ditched regular numerical conventions after, and tag each subsequent volume as a decimal. In fact, they did this with most of their series after 2002. What sort of sense does that make? And why settle on whatever arbitrary number they did in the first place? Like, Beach House stopped at 04.0x, Winter Chill stopped at 06.0x, and Disco Heaven didn't even get past 01.0x. They'd eventually just revert to yearly tags, but this period does remain one of the quirkier aspects of the Hed Kandi legacy.

Anyhow, we're diving into Disco Kandi 05.02 (re: Disco Kandi 06), because it was the cheapest I found on a recent hunt. Also, I seem to be finding a lot of these .02 compilations over their sequels; strange, that. The concept of Disco Kandi is straight-forward enough: CD1 offers the more vintage sounds of disco, including nods to garage and diva soul, though all in a modern context. CD2 brings in the tougher disco house tunes, treading closer to French house's loopy domain, though as this is a 2002 release, we're not quite there yet.

Namedrops are about what you'd expect of a Hed Kandi release too. StoneBridge is here! Mousse T is here! Full Intention is here! Joey Negro is here! Tim Deluxe is here! Danny Howells.. is also here? Plump DJs? What are you doing here? Remixing War's old-timey Galaxy, is what.

Yeah, there's a few updated rubs of old tunes here, though not as many as I was expecting. Mousse T's go with T-Ski Valley's Catch The Beat sounds almost as pure as the 1981 disco-rap club it spawned from. Full Intention's go with Aly-Us' 1992 hit Follow Me wouldn't sound out of place in New York City that same year. Meanwhile, Hi Fi Serious turn The Beatles' Believe into ...wait, THE Beatles? *checks Discogs* Well sonofa'.. Turn The Beatles' mellow ditty Because into a disco house number. Cheeky mudder fuggers.

Various - United DJs Of America, Vol. 11: Cevin Fisher - My First CD

DMC: 1999

This name tasks me. Taunts me. Flies in the face of all that I hold grammatically pure and true. Cevin is pronounced with a hard 'C', like 'Kevin', but my brain wants me to pronounce it with a soft 'C', like 'Seven'. Anytime I see a 'C' beside an 'e', I gotta' say it as an 's'. Brains are weird.

Folks new to the house game may know Mr. Fisher for his vocal contributions in recent singles, but he's been a New York City fixture for many, many years. He spent a good chunk of the '90s releasing his own singles under several one-off aliases, and built up a rep' as one of house music's emerging talents on the DJ circuit. By the turn of the millennium, he looked poised to stand shoulder to shoulder with Morales, Sanchez, Knuckles, and Vega, especially since they'd all done prior mixes for the United DJs Of America series. This would launch the next stage of Cevin's career!

He... didn't take off quite as expected. It wasn't a fall off or anything, but house music kept morphing throughout the '00s, and Cevin's vintage New York disco house kept him firmly entrenched in the clubbing underground. Thus he never broke out the way his contemporaries did, though it wouldn't surprise me if he prefers it that way.

And yes, 'dangerous disco' is the name of the game on United DJs Of America, Vol. 11 (his first CD!). The opening Beautiful Day from House Of 909 takes us off with chill, uplifting vibes, but Cevin doesn't waste time in getting us to that ultra-loopy house action, including his own anthem of House Music - Cevin don't mess around with fancy titles, yo'. From there, things go a little deeper (Those Norwegians' Soda), a little Latin (Agent Purple's Kings Of Spain), a little bumpin' (Wet Dreams' Sunrise), and back to disco (Studio 45's Freak It). And what New York house set is complete without the obligatory nine-minute gospel cut to take us out? Well, some, but Mr. Fisher's making sure all flavours of house are repped here, so raise those damn hands and sing the praises of your Lord Jesus!

Oh man, there's so many famous fictional people from New York City I could get to do a guest review spot. For some reason though, an investment banker by the name of Patrick Bateman wants in.

Patrick: I didn't understand house music, not at first, when black people in Chicago were dancing to it. Something about that environment didn't seem right, like a primitive version of the disco nights of Studio 54. New York City made house better, merging it with something called garage. I believe that's another disco genre. It gave house music more soul, not unlike an upbeat Whitney Houston song. House music is now played in many clubs around the city, including The Tunnel. Hardbodies there like dancing to it.

(Uh, you've hit the word-cap, Patrick, and didn't talk about the CD at all.)

The first Cevin Fisher track I heard was It's Gonna Be Alright, a collaboration with Jus Us as No Pain, in 1993. The single came out on Hardtrax Records in 1993, and had five different versions on it. The first two mixes, titled No More Pain Mix and Gonna Be Alright Mix, have little variation between them. Cliff's Deep Flute Mix has some jazz flute notes being played. Rio Beats adds some Latin influences to the track. The Vox adds long delay and echo effects to Cevin's vocals. This was the only single Cevin Fisher released as No Pain.

It was after this single that Cevin Fisher started releasing music under this name. His first record was called Oye Ese Pito!!! on the label Gettin Lifted. His next single was an eponymous record, released on Groovilicious in 1996. This had the tracks Do You Wanna Fly, Take You To The Skies, Pump It, and Pump The Beats. Cevin released many more singles that same year, including I Want Music on Subversive, Raise Your Hands on Sound Of Minisry, and Check This Out and The Most Wanted EP on Maxi Records. In 1998, he paired with Robert Owens, a popular house music singer, and Satoshi Tomiie, a progressive house producer, for the single Darkness, released on S3. By far though, his most popular track was (You Got Me) Burnin' Up, released on Tommy Boy Silver. It's success lies with a sampling of Love Sensation by Loleatta Holloway, a disco hit from 1980, released on Gold Mind Records. In capturing Loleatta Holloway's impassioned belting voice, Cevin Fisher recaptures the hedonistic feeling of late '70 disco for a modern era. Another club anthem Cevin released in 1998 was The Freaks Come Out.

(what are you doing? I said your word cap was tapped out)

Cevin Fisher used a slightly different alias for The Freaks Come Out, called Cevin Fisher's Big Freak. This would be the only record he'd use the alias for. The track uses a sample from Whodini's Freaks Come Out At Night, released on Jive in 1984. Another key feature is the belting refrain of a 'disco diva' singing "Oh baby, oh!" Also in the track are horns that sound like a mardi gras celebration. In combining all these elements, Cevin Fisher captures the melting pot of New York City's varied clubbing cultures both past and present. Many popular DJs have now featured it their mixes and radio shows. This includes Pete Tong's Essential Selection - Summer 1998, on FFRR; Boy George's set in the tag-team release with Judge Jules of The Annual IV, on Ministry Of Sound; DJ Dan's mix CD Beats 4 Freaks on Moonshine Music; Tall Paul's set in Cream Anthems, released by Virgin EMI; Carl Cox's Non Stop 98/01, released on FFRR; The Klubbheads, in their set for the three CD release Kontor - Top Of The Clubs Volume 2, released on Polytel; Flavio Vecchi's set on New York Bar Compilation Volume 1, released on Dream Beat; Allister Whitehead's set in Fantazia - British Anthems 2000, released on Fantazia; Robert De La... Gauthier's Club Foundation, released on ID&T; Richard Evans & Johnathon Robbins' set from In The Mix Ibiza, released on Circa Records LTD.; Mas Ricardo in OXA House Vol. 2, released on TBA; DJ Erick-E's set on Work 9, released on Work Records; Alan Thompson's set in Trade: Summer Holiday, released on Jive.

(oh my god, doesn't this guy ever shut up?)

Various - Disco Heaven 02.02

Hed Kandi: 2002

I mentioned that 2002 is generally agreed upon as the year that Hed Kandi's quality peaked out. The following couple years weren't too bad, though a definite dip in consistency was settling in. This here Disco Heaven compilation is indicative of the problem. “Wait,” you probably think, “the label fashioned itself after appealing, uplifting house music, and disco's got that in spades. Hed Kandi would be out of their mind not to create a compilation series celebrating it!” And you're right, they did create a series, almost from the outset. It was called Disco Kandi. This, on the other hand, is Disco Heaven. That's right, Hed Kandi was finding so much success in the compilation market that they doubled their disco house options. By the next year, they'd set up a third series called Twisted Disco, and more recently a Nu Disco series. Plus don't forget the one-off Destroy The Disco. I'm surprised they haven't done a Disco Classics yet.

Point is, Hed Kandi's covered a lot of disco house in its day, probably spreading the choice selections out too thin in the process. They might have handled it okay in the early going, as label head Mark Doyle remained passionate of his pet project, but no one could maintain so many compilations with any regular consistency, especially if the franchise kept growing and growing with new series every few years. Small wonder it got sold off to Ministry Of Sound.

And for what reason did Hed Kandi see fit to create Disco Heaven in the first place (beyond muscling in more Hed Kandi covers in record stores)? Mark Doyle's liner notes state “we just thought it would be better to have a new title instead of hitting Disco Kandi 37 sometime next year!” Alright then.

Near as I can figure it, Disco Heaven offers up one disc of your standard uplifting, soulful garage house music – the stuff you'd find on Disco Kandi - and a second CD with clubbier tunes that feed off that loopier French filter funk. Like, I have no idea whether the Disco Kandi dabbled that way too, but I don't recognize any tracks of that sort in those CDs. Meanwhile, Disco Heaven has Junior Jack's Thrill Me; aka: that tune that apes the bassline from Daft Punk's Burnin'. I honestly thought it was some remix of Burnin' when I heard it here, only because I'd totally forgot about Junior Jack's version.

Anything else? Names I recognized from a glance included Kings Of Tomorrow, Full Intention, DJ Antoine, Kenny Dope, StoneBridge, Francois K, Jamiroquai and Shawn Christopher. Names you might recognize include Indigo, The Lab Rats, Shakedown, Kim English, and DaYeene. Really, name-dropping feels pointless with this collection. Disco Heaven is rather all one-note (and one-BPM) throughout, and does get weary hearing Yet Another House Beat unmixed over and over and over. It's still fun in spurts, but a little more variety would have broken up the monotony too.

Various - Beach House 04.02

Hed Kandi: 2002

I reviewed a couple Hed Kandi's Winter Chill compilations while it was still technically summer, so it's only appropriate that I tackle one of their summery collections as winter is settling in. Yeah, we're still in the autumn months, but the fact the West Coast got a white dusting already – the West Coast! - tells me winter is getting a head-start on its yearly shenanigans. I must combat it, then, with fun-in-the-sun Balearic beach music. Funk music for frolicking in the briny waves, soul music for sashaying through the blistering hot sand, and house music for hiding in the shade lest our pasty-asses get burnt by unforgiving UV rays. Man, beaches are kinda' terrible, when you think about it.

But hey, never was there a marketable concept that Hed Kandi couldn't exploit, and Beach House was quickly established as the upbeat companion to their summery Serve Chilled compilations. It's proven to be one of the brand's most successful series, enduring to this day, even dipping into the 3CD option in recent years. Man, considering the label's drop in quality control post Ministry Of Sound buyout, not to mention what's thought of as mainstream 'classy' house these days, I couldn't handle three discs of such waffle. Maybe others couldn't either, hence a return to the two-disc format in 2017.

Beach House 04.02 is the fourth in the series though, released back in Hed Kandi's peak years. Can't argue that based on the track list, some real classics mixed in with the less familiar tunes. I mean, we get Ashley Beedle's Mahavishnu Remix of Bent's Always, one of the best European deep house singles that emerged from the year 2001! There's also X-Press 2's Lazy, Beth Orton's Central Reservation (with a rub from Spiritual Life and Ibadan), Nick Holder's Sumer Daze, and Kaskade's It's You, It's Me (when Kaskade made good music). And that's just the closing stretch of CD1!

Actually, that's about it for recognizable artists, at least where I'm sitting from. Miguel Migs shows up for the dancier CD2, and I spy an Axwell remix on that disc too, but it's mostly blanks for the likes of Rawsoul Orchestra, Jetlag, Jon Cutler, Octave One... two-thirds of Beach House 04.02 really. Not that they're bunk artists or anything, just that there's so much house music out there, keeping tabs on everyone's a difficult proposition. I feel if I'd dug into these Hed Kandi compilations more often, I'd start seeing several repeated contributors, but alas, my exposure remains but a sampling, as only indulged when I spy an eye-catching discount price.

So the music's all fine, but if I must make a quibble, it's that this Beach House compilation only feels properly 'beachy' some of the time. Like, these could just as easily be played in lounges or a terrace, though during daylight does remain optimal. Whatever, I'd prefer a solid selection of tunes that sometimes fits a theme, than a mediocre selection of tunes that struggles to fit a theme.

Various - United DJs Of America Volume 17: Scott Hardkiss (Original TC Review)

DMC: 2001

(2017 Update:
One of the very, very, very few perfect scores I gave out while writing for TranceCritic, and I still stand by it. Admittedly, what Scott Hardkiss does here probably isn't as impressive these days what with digital DJing making eclectic sets like these much easier to produce. Heck, such CDs were quite marketable and profitable for a short while a number of years back, kitchen-sink sets earning all the critical plaudits. Just makes Scott's effort here all the more remarkable having done it on vinyl, practically in spite of scene hype focusing its attention elsewhere.

Sadly, Scott passed away some four years ago now. Before then, he'd finally released a full-length album in 2009 called Technicolor Dreamer, all the while continuing to put out singles and working the DJ circuit until the end. Truly one of San Francisco's legends, taken far too soon.)

IN BRIEF: More house than a suburban district.

United DJs Of America: remember this series? If not, don’t feel too bad - it’s understandable. Despite having a number of highly respected names tied to it (Bones, Bambaataa, Knuckles, Vega, Farina, Craze… loads more), DMC had difficulty maintaining a consistent distributor, flopping around on several during its eight year run. In the end, it folded when the American dance industry entered a mild recession in the year of ‘03.

Shame, then, that San Francisco based DJ/producer Scott Hardkiss should be offered a go at this series so late in its run. Most likely know Hardkiss as that guy behind God Within and White Dove, but he was mixing up acid, breaks, and house on the West Coast scene for longer than that. As something of a recluse from the spotlight, he never quite broke out the way many of his peers did. And when finally given the opportunity to do so, his contribution to the United DJs legacy went largely unnoticed. And that, my friends, is an even bigger shame, as Hardkiss put together possibly one of the finest mixes the series ever saw.

For all its resilience and ace talent, the quality of United DJs often varied. It wasn’t uncommon for a classic release to be followed with an achingly average one, often due to the limitations DJs put themselves in by sticking to their chosen styles. Hardkiss, though, is a wildly eclectic DJ, and wouldn’t be satisfied with settling for a few forms of house. So, he went and made a mix with all of them!

Well, not all of them. Deep house is absent because this isn’t the kind of set for it. Electro house is obviously uninvited to this party either, since this release comes before that sound had really emerged. And of course euro-house is just too poppy. But yeah ...everything else - prog, acid, disco, tech; it’s all here.

So if this is such a varied mix, why did it go unnoticed? First impressions can go a long way, and in this case the opening tracks may have turned many away. Hardkiss starts with prog, and in 2001 this stuff was everywhere, with many sets sounding no different from the next. You’d be forgiven for dismissing this as Just Another Prog Mix based on the beginning.

But unlike many prog sets that drag with tension builders and transition tracks due to the room of two discs, Hardkiss knows he has far less time to get everything he wants in the seventy-four minutes a single CD offers. With no wasted meanderings, he mixes into his trademark funky acid house with Electric Skychurch’s Liberty and peaks the trip with a kaleidoscope of bubbly psychedelia in is rub of Tom Chasteen’s Freedom. And soon after that, we’re off into a festive atmosphere with The Heartists’ Bolo Horizonti, where Hardkiss gives a nod to New York as well with David Morales’ remix of the same track right afterwards.

You’d think these quick transitions between such different types of house (we’ve gone through at least four by the mid-way mark) would clash with abrupt mixes, yet Hardkiss keeps things flowing just fine, each track complementing the next without sounding forced. By contrast, a number of DJ mixes that attempt house sets of this nature sound like an MP3 player put on Random. Either it’s a testament to his skill as a DJ, or most other DJs have just grown lazy over the years by sticking with only a couple styles.

The house music continues jumping all over the place as the set carries on: funk is brought in courtesy of C-Mos’ 6-2 Young; having earned our trust with his track selection thus far, Hardkiss gets away with the goofy fun of Plastika and Conga Squad’s Disco Rockin’; energetic tech injects a dose of adrenaline with Jark Prongo’s Rocket Bass (and yes, that is Push It sampled there); good-natured hip-house from Armand van Helden and Common take us out with class; and sprinklings of San Francisco’s disco funk fill in the gaps.

Critiques then. Surely there has to be something that doesn’t hold up on this half-a-decade old set. Honestly, there’s very little worth criticizing here: track arrangement is superb and the mixing is mostly unobtrusive. A couple technical issues pop up but hardly hinder; in fact, it adds to the charm of this set, giving it a rawer live feeling and thus making Hardkiss’ few DJ tricks all the more engaging. And even if you don’t fancy house music, you’ll nonetheless enjoy the positive San Fran vibes that ooze from these tracks.

Steady readers of this website probably realize these five-star ratings are rare, but Hardkiss’ foray has everything we look for in a release that earns it: diversity, creativity, and - most importantly - enjoyable engagement from start to finish. Don’t miss out on this overlooked gem.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2007. © All rights reserved

Various - Trade: Past Present Future

Beechwood Music: 2000

More than just another UK superclub, Trade’s legacy will forever be as important as Warehouse, Paradise Garage, and other early gay clubs championing that house sound. While there was no shortage of such venues at the turn of the ‘90s, they were still subject to standard clubbing curfews, leaving patrons with little more to do than wander streets and parks as they kept the party vibes going the morning after. Thanks to some wheelin’ and dealin’ by founder Laurence Malice, however, an afterhours slot at Turnmills was secured, one of the first ever in the UK. With an ad campaign specifically offering a safer alternative for post-clubbing all-night benders, Trade quickly flourished, becoming one of the UK’s dance music institutions, and launching the careers of many notable DJs (Tony de Vit, Tall Paul, Fergie).

And like any successful clubnight with a brand reaching global status, Trade got in on that DJ mix CD market too. Its first series of double-discers came out in the mid-‘90s on EMI offshoot Feverpitch, successfully promoting a hard house stylee the club was growing famous for. When the label folded after a mere two years, Trade eventually found a new home on Beechwood Music, kicking off with Past Present Future, two CDs supplying all the sounds you might hear at an all-nighter in Turnmills.

By this point in Trade’s lifespan, the clubnight had grown large enough for a second room playing funkier house music, from which production duo The Sharp Boys were instrumental in running. CD1 mostly focuses on their sound, and they definitely run the gamut. Groovy garage opens things up, loopy disco escalates the tempo (yep, Loleatta Holloway still going strong), and you can’t have such a set without a soul-sista’ monolog (Antoine Clamaran’s Get Up). The Boys take a turn for the tribal (X-Press 2), offer some bouncy house (DJ Antoine’s Do It has a donk on it), hit you with a little tech-house action (Smoking Schoolboy’s Tell Me (Detention Mix)), finally unleashing an unabashed anthem in Bryon Stingily’s Stand Up Right. Oh, and they finish off with an Armin & Tiësto collab’ of Eternity. Because clearly a club catering to hard house heads crave that Dutch cheese, absolutely.

With so much genre hopping, CD1’s an erratic set at best, and hardly indicative of the pummeling sound Trade’s all-nighters were built around. Step up to CD2 then, where ‘future’ representative Gonzalo Santiago hits you with a full mix of NRG! The beats come hard, some tracks have hoovers, others have acid, and build-ups are blessedly brief. I don’t have much else to say about it, my knowledge of NRG severely lacking. It’s fun for the time I play it, but I don’t want to play it much after. Not even that Baby Doc rub of Praga Khan’s Injected With A Poison.

A bonus third CD is a ten-minute snapshot of Tony de Vit rinsing out on New Year’s Eve, 1996. A touching tribute to one of Trade’s true legends, taken away far too soon.

Cirrus - Stop & Panic

Moonshine Music: 1999

I feel Moonshine Music oversold us on Cirrus being The Next Big Thing. Not that I blame the label in marketing the Los Angeles breaks duo as their answer to The Chemical Brothers and The Crystal Method. Big beat was big business as the ‘90s drew to a close, but there was only so much big money a label could gather with compilations that (possibly) required big licensing fees. DJ Aaron Carter and Stephen J. Barry had a good look to them, in that so-‘90s L.A. way, and were more than capable of kicking out the jams in various genres, though acidy breaks was their main call of expertise. They could have simply carved out their niche and stayed on the low-key, but after Moonshine had so much success in their promotion of “Superstar DJ” Keoki, another kick at the Crossover Can couldn’t hurt. Or not, if it meant licensing out Cirrus tracks to all manner of receptive video games.

Anyhow, Stop & Panic was the second single from the group’s second album, Back On A Mission. There were no other singles from the LP following this, Cirrus quick to move on from big beat before the year 2000 reared its head. This cut is all big beat though, with guitar licks, fierce crashing percussion, tweaked as fuck acid, siren calls, time stretched vocals of the title, and a little record scratchin’ for good measure. In other words, a good thrashing time.

This being Moonshine, you can’t have a single without a DJ Dan remix, and Dan does the deed with his typical disco funk rub of house. Just in case you felt the original was too much big beat and not enough proper breaks, The Coffee Boys (re: just one guy named Paul Grogan) strips things down some, giving space for the acid to shine without a bunch of other sounds cluttering things up. I’ve talked about DJ Micro’s go on DJ Aaron Carter’s mix CD Lit Up, in that I just mentioned it there as a surprise ending to the hard acid techno set. Still, it was used well in that context, whereas on this single it’s possibly the driest of the remixes. There needs to be more than just siren-wailing bosh in my acid techno.

Finally, progressive trancer Deepsky rounds out the single with a decidedly old-school take on the genre. Seriously, that pitch-bending sawwave is straight out of the bible of Jam & Spoon tricks, even right down to the breakdown where you hear nothing else. I’d keep thinking I’m hearing Follow Me instead of a Stop & Panic remix were it not for the vocal being dropped in throughout. This couldn’t have been a coincidence. Deepsky had to have done it deliberately, just figured no one listening to a Cirrus single would ever know the truth. Well, fool’s on Mr. Blum, as I am one such person! Clearly though, this is among the utmost useless information I have in my possession.

Steve Porter - Porterhouse

Fade Records: 2006

I’m hard pressed to think of another career that’s taken as strange a trajectory as Steve Porter’s. He got his break releasing tunes on Chris Fortier’s Fade Records, joining the ranks of a progressive house/trance/pants scene as it started down the ‘dark prog’ path. These days, he’s known as that guy who makes memetastic sports mash-ups, winning web awards and features on SportsCenter. Hell, he even got the nod of approval from Canadian blow-hard Don Cherry, no small feat considering the short list of things he’ll give any props to. Now, make that connection in your head: from John Digweed to Don Cherry. It just don’t add up!

Confounding this story further is the long in-between those career points, as it shows almost no common link between the two incredibly disparate achievements. Instead, we find Steve Porter supporting funky house music, as daft as any scene to find refuge in the middle of the ‘00s. He had to do something, of course, as the dark prog that defined his early years had fallen out of fashion, most of his peers left adrift to latch onto whatever hot new trend they could adapt to. Most went for the minimal and tech-house brass ring, including some of his Fade label mates; others tried out that electro fad for a time. Upbeat disco and funk though? There were isolated strongholds for the sound, especially in clubs around New York City and Miami, but where was the critical prestige in those fun and gaudy scenes, the buzzword worthiness, the forced narrative of their influence within The Scene at large?

This move on Porter’s part could have been career suicide, and he may have faded off into irrelevancy if he hadn’t found fame with his mash-up videos. On the other hand, chasing trends probably didn’t appeal to him if it meant playing dry-as-desert dirt tech-house or electro-fart nonsense - dance music doesn’t have to be so damn serious nor ‘stoopid’. If losing critical hype is the price paid for pursuing what appeals most to you, then all the more power to ya’, Mr. Porter.

Making his new musical manifesto clear was his first dive into the DJ mix market, Porterhouse. It contains twenty-six tracks, which is impossible to mix on a single CD if you’re still playing prog, but perfectly awesome if you’re playing funky house. And breaks! Holy cow, breaks are mixed in here. Not in the traditional ‘spotlight segment’ either, but throughout as though they have every right existing beside all the four-to-the-floor business. Plenty of instances of prog-house’s chugging rhythms and big melodic moments crop up too, though never to the detriment of keeping the vibe on the up and tempo consistent and relentless. Porter also makes up about half the tunes (including under guises like Chop Shop and Agent 001), so there aren’t many detours away from his sound. Porterhouse doesn’t come off as anything more significant than a mindless diversion then, but I can’t deny it being a fun ride.

Various - Planet Dance

Tommy Boy Silver Label: 2000

Planet Dance is another entry in the ongoing history of “Good Music, Bad Covers”. To begin with, the title is utterly generic, and though hyperbolic sub-titles are almost mandatory, even a rote rookie wouldn’t be fooled into thinking Planet Dance is selling what it claims. I’ll give some credit for choosing a minimalist design in artwork, but I’m not sure what that thing is supposed to be. An all-white ‘P’ overlapping a block-spectrum of a ‘D’? And the logo in the bottom corner, is that really Tommy Boy’s, the label famously known as an early leader in hip-hop and urban soul? When did they get on the dance music money train?

Truth be told, they’ve flirted in and out of dance culture for just as long, including a few hip-house tracks when it had short-lived chart strength. After Daft Punk re-invigorated house music and the clubs that supported it in the back-half of the ‘90s, it wasn’t such a bad idea to throw one’s hat into the lucrative pile. Tommy Boy already had plenty of ties and connections to New York City clubs, and a little extra market penetration outside their core demographic wouldn’t hurt. Big gay diva house it is, then.

Thus Tommy Boy established a sub-label specifically catering to the needs of house heads, Tommy Boy Silver. Planet Dance is a summation of tracks that had been released through the label’s first couple years of existence, and remarkably ace throughout for a bandwagon jump. While I wouldn’t call all these ‘club hits’ like the CD claims, there are quite a few memorable anthems on here, and plenty of noteworthy names of the time, including Cevin Fisher leading the charge. Never a bad thing hearing Burning Up or The Freaks Come Out again; a few Junior Vasquez remixes also goes down easy. Squeezed into this mix are a few surprises too.

For instance, Demi Moore is on here! Yes, that Moore, sampled from a world-beat track where she read poetry, now set to a big house cut with orchestral swells and builds (A Gift Of Love’s Do You Love Me, for the record). Or how about a pre-Get Physical M.A.N.D.Y. showing up as Oakland Stroke for a funky outing in Planet Whip, inspired by the way-oldie Let It Whip from Dazz Band? Yeah, didn’t see that one coming, did you?

Nor a pile of hard house either, I wager. Not content in cornering the disco house scene, Tommy Boy Silver got in on the ravier side of things, including Mario Più’s hit Communication (aka: that phone song), and the one-off DJ Irene project P.I.M.P. Project (Kick Your Legs Higher is proto-‘donk’!). Bridging the gap between hard house and progressive house (kinda’) is Hypertrophy, with four tracks of theirs in this mix – geez, they only released five singles. It’s probably a bit much for those who never cared for ‘bells-n-plucks’ riffs, but when surrounded with strong funky vibes, they make for nice sweetener. Definitely a surprising keeper, Planet Dance is.

Various - Tunes Of The Year 2001

Muzik Magazine: 2002

Though stuck in the hinterlands of Canada for a while, my job at a music shop kept me a step ahead of my pals on many things electronic music orientated. Such was the perk of receiving promotional material with every order, scouring about for intriguing new artists and albums. What’s that, Nu-Skool Nick, you’ve found an online music hub called Napster where you can download anything you want? That’s nice to hear, but do you know what you want to hear? It’s one thing to snag up older discographies, but what about the new hotness? Plus, you gotta wait for someone to upload that shit anyway, and the only way to do that is after someone buys a physical copy first (occasional leaks notwithstanding). And there was only one place in town to go if you wanted new music as soon as it hit the Rupert streets. Well, okay, a couple places, but I was the only place that’d order underground electronic music. So bow to my superior knowledge of the scene, fellow Rupert people, bwahaha!

Then I left, started reading Muzik Magazine, and discovered I knew jack shit about anything. Oh, sure, we had Mixer over here, and a few forums helped fill out some blanks, but most of what we got was still the heavily promoted names, sounds, and DJ mixes anyone could find in a typical HMV ‘electronica’ section. All the coverage Muzik provided showed there was a layer of electronic music few on my side of the pond bothered with, and in my OCD way of wanting to learn everything, eagerly consumed their gospel.

Such blind faith wasn’t earned without some effort though. While I enjoyed the print, those first couple free CDs weren’t enough to convince me outright Muzik was better than others. Then came the January 2002 issue, which included a CD spotlighting the best tunes of 2001. Before even looking at the names or tracks, I questioned the point of such a collection when the previous CD was already a “Best Of” based on Muzik’s awards; plus, I barely knew any of the names. New Order, of course; Slam, definitely; Björk, absolutely; Timo Maas, I think so. And yet, I hadn’t heard anything essential from these names, much less new-to-my-eyes acts like Chocolate Puma, Bent, The Rhythm Masters, or Bel Amour. Surely Muzik was stretching their notions of what constituted essential.

Hell no, they were totally right. Between prog, house (of all sorts), downtempo, and breaks, their selections opened the lid on what I thought clubbing music could entail. All those drab ‘Crasher and Cream discs didn’t deserve their shelf space if it was holding back Ashley Beedle’s remix of Always or glorious disco-loop house like Agent Sumo’s 24 Hours. If Muzik was in the know about such ace material unheralded in the Americas, then their other recommendations had to be mint as well. Thus began my downloading campaign from them, and all those Mixed Goods discs. Yay.

Various - Montreal Mix Sessions Vol. 4 - Lafleche

Turbo: 2000

Montreal as a hub of innovative musical trends rivaled only by the hippest ‘burbs of New York City has been the indie narrative for years, but that wasn’t always the case. Despite being one step ahead of the rest of North America, general music journalism goes through periods of disinterest with the region, the ‘90s a particularly fallow period as I recall. Guess that’s what happens when all the sexy business is going down on the other side of the continent. Still, Montreal carried on doing its thing, continually inspired by the sounds of Europe, patiently waiting for the rest of North America to catch on.

It was about the time this CD came out that Turbo finally found its footing and spread its manifesto out from Montreal. Unfortunately for LaFleche Morin, a veteran DJ of that scene and one of the first chaps Tiga tapped for the Mix Sessions series, he released his second DJ set for the label just before things truly took off. While I'm sure his gig career remained as steady as it ever was, Lafleche's contribution to Turbo's been relegated to something of a footnote, a dutiful soldier who helped get things rolling but never got to bask in the lime-light that followed.

Even his mix, classy though it is, comes off over-familiar if you followed funky, disco house at the turn of the millennium. I know I’ve a few of these tracks on other CDs, though LaFleche does provide his own rubs for The Real Jazz and That Zipper Track. Plenty of recognizable names show up – Jamie Anderson, Trevor Rockcliffe, Sébastien Léger, DJ Sneak, Paranoid Jack, and Gene Farris the ones I’ve heard before. Unknowns to my eyes are DJ Maxhens, DJ Nekbath, Bert Dunk, John Kano, and Tomba Vira. These last two mark a small detour LeFleche indulges in late in the set, featuring Afro and Latin rhythms, capped off by a bit of tribal chant-stomp in Rockcliffe’s Love Music. Fast forward to the late ‘00s, and folks are praising the likes of Luciano for playing similar stuff, yet here’s LaFleche rinsing out the worldly rhythms nearly a decade earlier. I told you Montreal was ahead of the game!

That said, there’s little to recommend in Montreal Mix Sessions 4. It’s a fun set, sure, but unremarkable all things considered – Moonshine was hawking similar CDs around this time too, not to mention several other upstart labels emerging during those boom times for electronic music. If you were raw to house, your prior knowledge coming from Hed Kandi collections, then this was like opening a door to a whole new realm of funky rhythm hedonism. For the seasoned weekend warrior though, LaFleche’s offering would come off old-hat.

Perhaps Tiga realized this, as the final Montreal Mix Sessions, his own Mixed Emotions, saw a radical departure from house of this sort. Not to mention every Mix Sessions CD after featuring DJs from realms of non-Francophone origin. Change was definitely in the winds at Turbo.

Various - Mixed Goods 1

(~): 2002

TRACK LIST:
1. Jam & Spoon - Be Angeled (Tweaker Mix)
2. Tendroid - Trendication To House
3. 2 Unlimited - Get Ready For This 2001 (Robbie Rivera White Label Mix 1)
4. Mark Ambrose - Destiny Angel
5. FPU - Crockett’s Theme (Tiga’s White Linen Remix)
6. Bushwacka! - Chorus
7. 2 Unlimited - No Limit 2000 (Razor & Guido Dub Remix)
8. Noiseshaper - The Only Redeemer (Needs Mix)
9. Mondo Grosso - Star Suite (Shelter Vocal Mix)

Mixed Goods was my main burned CD series; essentially where I shoved my current house, techno, trance, prog, and a few other assorted additions. I tried maintaining specific stylistic themes with each CD, and sometimes it worked out, but as I began running out of material, the later volumes turned incredibly hodgepodge. Just as well I lost a bunch of those. Out of sixteen Mixed Goods I made, only ten survive now, and even then half the CDs have oxidized (why didn’t anyone tell us these things about CDRs?). Most of the tunes I got for these were nabbed off AudioGalaxy or WinMX, typically after reading the back pages of Muzik Magazine and seeing what I could even find from their chart lists. Clearly I have no need for such antics now, but back then, I was broke, on the dole, and living nowhere near decent music shops. It was all I had to stay current on electronic music, so you’ll forgive a little sentimentality on my part as I now review my collection of Mixed Goods. Wait, where are you going?

Ah, forget those guys. Those that stayed, thanks man! Eh, what’s with the tracklist above? Well, wouldn’t you know it, quite a few of the tunes I gathered up for these collections are difficult to find now. Something like a (pre-shit) Robbie Rivera white label remix of 2 Unlimited, that makes sense, but dang, I had no idea Bushwacka!’s bouncy Afro-house Chorus would be too. Since the odds of making any respectable Amazon Playlist out of these tracklists is unlikely for music so old, I’m offering up the tracklist for these if you’re interested enough to scour the web for the tunes yourselves.

Okay, enough pre-amble. Mixed Goods 1 was my stab at a ‘funky, deep, classy house’ collection. Yes, even with a pair of 2 Unlimited tracks on it, though admittedly the Razor & Guido remix is more of an anthem house thing. Tracks like Mark Ambrose’s Destiny Angel and Tendroid’s Trendication To House Music are likely forgotten now, but house legend Blaze’s go at Mondo Grosso’s Star Suite’s a classic; sixteen minutes of groovy, shuffly jazz-garage with a never-ending empowerment monolog. Yeah, that’s some classy shit, mofos. Makes you even forget the CD opened with the corny Be Angeled from Jam & Spoon. Why would that even be made into a house track anyway? Jam & Spoon’s trance, no matter how pop they were going at the time. Give that track to Paul van Dyk or something.